There are no plans to delay or cancel the upcoming Venice film festival, despite the devastating number of coronavirus cases in Italy, according to the president of the festival’s parent organization. In a recent interview with Italian outlet ANSA, via Variety, Venice Biennale president Roberto Cicutto said the festival is still scheduled to go on as planned September 2–12.

Cicutto’s decision arrives just a few days after it was announced that Cannes would no longer move forward with its plans to delay the May festival to late June or July.

“With Cannes, everything is possible, but I find it disconcerting that [Cannes festival director] Thierry Frémaux keeps saying he is continuing to examine the situation and does not say what he wants to do,” Cicutto said.

“We are going forward with our program,” the Venice leader continued. “And if Cannes is still thinking (about their course of action) then there is no dialogue.” There are no plans for a joint Cannes-Venice initiative, he added.

Meanwhile, the Venice team is planning ahead for the multiday event by “doing simulations regarding a typical festival day,” Cicutto said. He noted that digital technology will be “important for foreign press,” since “foreign attendance will be necessarily much smaller.”

But will it be safe to host even a limited version of the festival, considering how the novel coronavirus has put much of the world on hold? Italy in particular has been ravaged by the virus, with 175,925 confirmed cases in the country as of two days ago. Though its death toll is dropping, the country is still under lockdown in order to flatten the curve—and it’s not clear if large gatherings will be safe even by September. In the interview, Variety notes, Cicutto said he expects Italian authorities to grant Venice special status regarding nationwide security measures against the spread of COVID-19, so that it can safely proceed with the use of movie theaters.

“It’s one thing to manage six or seven circumscribed movie theaters,” as opposed to “thousands of movie theaters,” he noted. Final plans are still being hammered out, Cicutto continued, and Venice organizers will reveal more details about the tweaked festival by the end of May.

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